Interview: Emile Chevalier

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It was November 2nd and Emily had come to interview the Tournament Champions for the Daily prophet. They had been interviewed by other writers a bit as well, but seeing as Emily was the primary Hogwarts Correspondent, she needed to get her interviews in as soon as possible. She'd be interviewing the champions one at a time in the Great Hall, at a little table set off to the side on this Saturday afternoon. Her current interviewee was @emile , for Beauxbatons.

Emily offered a handshake in greeting before sitting at the table, "have a seat Emile. I'm Emily with the Daily Prophet," yes, she chuckled at how similar their names were. "I'm sure you're all tired of all the interviews by now. Are you?" she started.

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A nother interview was scheduled for today. Émile had already been through quite a few notable newspapers and magazines so far, the most interesting of them had included a very attractive young lady, whom he had hoped to talk to more after the interview had finished. That never happened because she seemed to be more interested in the Durmstrang champion, whatever his name was. Émile hadn’t really bothered remembering the other two champion’s names. There was the wild looking Durmstrang guy and some red-headed chick for Hogwarts. She didn’t seem that particularly imposing, and there were scarier Durmstrangs on that infernal ship of theirs. He had pretty much committed to the idea that this was going to be an easy victory for him, even if they did have a few hidden skills here or there. Of the other interviews given, one of them had to be with the Hogwarts newspaper, why that mattered he didn’t know. The boy giving the interview seemed like he didn’t really care about talking to the Durmstrang or Émile, but was chummy with the girl. Probably knew each other or something. Émile had wanted to say more during that one, but the guy looked so bored that he had to be there, that the Beauxbatons gave him what he wanted and got out of there as soon as possible. Idiots like that didn’t deserve to have positions that dealt with people. That should be obvious. Entering the Great Hall, Émile walked over towards the woman he assumed was the interviewer. This time, it was for the Daily Prophet. That was a paper worth talking too, unlike the childish Hogwarts paper. Sitting across from the woman, Émile introduced himself, and she did as well. Finally someone competent. “No no no. If doing interviews made me tired, then there would be no reason for me to be a champion.” If she had to ask him that, then surely one of the other two had complained about it. He would never do that. “So where do we start? I like to talk, and I’m sure you like to write things down, so we’ll get along. Ask away then Emily.” 360 @emily

credit to nat of adoxography.

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Emily grinned as he spoke about how if he was tired of interviews he wouldn't be fit to be champion. He then asked where they would start, mentioned that he liked to talk and how they could get along.

"Well Emile, good to hear that you're doing so well with all the attention," she said with a nod, she leaned forward a bit, holding her quill in hand and pressing it onto her parchment on the table, "tell me about being asked to come here to participate first, I'd say. I mean, only select students from your school were chosen. Were you surprised? How did you feel when the Headmistress contacted you?" she started off, looking up at him and not at her paper to show she was listening.

@emile

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T his interviewer knew what she was doing. Almost immediately upon saying he was ready to start, she was right into the hard hitting questions. Much, much better than that idiot interviewer for Hogwarts had been. Before she could ask the first question though, Émile was already becoming absorbed in his thoughts of everything so far. He was doing well with the attention? He wasn’t doing well at all. He was basking in it. The fame and glory this tournament brought to the champions and to the winner of it all was so close. To say he could almost taste victory would not be wrong at all. “Yeah, only the best were selected. I’d say a lot of the other Beauxbatons students, my classmates, are relatively talented in their own right, they were just at the wrong school this time around.” He was really getting into it now, and they had only just started too. Smiling, Émile continued. “As for the selection process, I think they looked at our grades. Our classes are pretty straight-laced, no screwing around. The professors and Headmistress know who the best students are from day one. I think it was an obvious choice to send me along with the rest of the seventh years, even if I’m not the most likeable person.” Émile was self-aware of the problems he faced with his fellow Beauxbatons students. They were all pretty stuck up in their own ways, but he definitely took the crown for the lot of them. “After they had picked the seventh years they wanted to participate, they threw us all in a room and told us about the tournament.” Threw was a strong word, it was more like they had all been called down at the same time, sat down, pampered like the precious children Beauxbatons thought they all were. How far from the truth that was. “There were a few that didn’t want to participate, so they left. The rest of us stayed to get the information we needed, and then we were here. All I had to do was be the best from Beauxbatons, enter my name, and win. Simple as that.” He crossed his arms, smiling again. 365 @emily

credit to nat of adoxography.

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Emile went on to answer her question and, once again, had a lot to say. She had to look down to write notes on what he was saying, but she was glad for it. The other two were not quite as talkative, at least not so much at a time. "Well, I wouldn't say you're not likeable, Emile. At least not from our encounter," she smiled, "granted, perhaps it is hard to be liked when one is so confident. I commend you for it, though," she added. "Of course you stayed to hear the information! After meeting you I'm not even a little surprised that you got selected. You seem very determined." She smiled, and then raised an eyebrow at him, "how did you get to being 'the best', anyway? How did you prepare before and after finding out about the tournament? Clearly you were well rehearsed in your abilities before they contacted you. Do you just always try to be the best or would you call it luck? And how did you better prepare upon knowing?"

@emile

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H e was somewhat glad that she called it confidence, and not cockiness. On the other hand, he wasn’t stupid and knew that was probably what she was really thinking. It was hard not to call him cocky, especially when he gloated about how good he was all the time. He had always assumed that it was the price that came with being the best. Some people weren’t equipped with being called “cocky” or “jerks” for wanting to be good at things. Émile had learned to take it in stride and turn it into his fuel for being even better. How others couldn’t see that was beyond him. “Thank you. I don’t get praise often for being this way,” he shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me at all, but it’s definitely welcomed when I do get it.” It had started off that way. His first few years of school, it was common for everyone to cheer him on as he did his thing. Soon it changed, and he went with it. Others wanted to be the best for once, and he didn’t like that. It was much easier being the villain, if he could even call it that, than being the goody-two-shoes that everyone looked up to and adored. He thought people like that were much more conceited than he was. “Determined is one way to put it. And being the best is rather simple. All I have to do is be better than the next person.” Talking about his exploits and adventures that he had gone through up until now was fun. Nobody had ever really taken interest in them before today. Now the whole world would hear his story and know all about him. “Now that doesn’t mean I always win. The more I lose, the more I focus on fixing the problems that caused that to happen. Once I feel like I’ve sufficiently mastered whatever it is, I go back and prove that I’m better than I was before.” He paused for a second, thinking about how many duels he had lost over the years and not making the Quidditch team too. “I’ve probably lost more than I’ve won. But luck? No. Bettering myself and my abilities doesn’t take luck. It’s the resolve to accept losing and turning it around into a final victory. Of course, the tournament only gives us one shot at each task. That means I need to be flawless.” He nodded his head, agreeing to his own statement. That was the resolve that he had drilled into his head since the tournament was announced. One chance for each task. No more, no less. He continued, finally answering her last question. “As far as preparing, I looked at records of the previous tournaments and tried to evaluate the types of tasks and abilities needed. Hogwarts has quite the collection of recorded history, did you know that?” 479 @emily

credit to nat of adoxography.

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Emile so far was the most talkative of the Champions and that made her job about 500 times easier and more fun. She had a lot to write down and listen to. "Well, I'm glad you understand that hard work is so important. Evaluating is just my style, too," she grinned. That was her job, for one, and she was a mystery solver daily, and she was a Ravenclaw. Evaluating and analyzing were some of her favorite things to do. "Hogwarts does, yes! I went to school here, so I've seen quite a bit of it. And, being the correspondent for the newspaper, I definitely have to know a lot of those things. Tell me, based on your evaluations, what are some of your guesses as to what the tasks will be like?"

@emile

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E valuating was her style too? She definitely seemed the type to critically look at things and make decisions based on cold, hard facts. Apparently that was all someone had to be like to be a reporter. The school paper guy didn’t seem like that at all though. Bored was one word that came to mind. Lazy was another. This reporter though, Emily, she was at least professional about the whole thing. He could tell she was a lot more intelligent than the other ones he had already talked to as well. That’s why when she asked him if he had an idea about what the tasks could be, he crossed his arms and slightly tipped his head to the side. Émile liked playing games, but this wasn’t the one he wanted to jump into. He had a pretty good idea of what the possibilities were already and there was no way he was going to give her that information. If she was as good at evaluating things as she said she was, and had a pretty good hold on Hogwarts and tournament history, there were only a few options to what the first task, at the least, was going to be. “Well, I think that’s where I’ll stop sharing my information.” He grinned at the reporter, winking at the same time. “Giving my guesses would constitute me either misleading my opponents or giving up what the tasks could possibly be. I’m here for a fair battle. One where we all go in blind and the best walks out.” By the best, he was clearly referring to himself, because that was honestly the only outcome that he was ever going to be content with. Losing to the wild looking Durmstrang or the Hogwarts girl was not at option, and never was. They were simply stepping stones for him to climb up to the pedestal of the Triwizard champion. 317 @emily

credit to nat of adoxography.

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Awe, so he wasn't interested in discussion possible tasks. Well, he was smart. She chuckled and nodded at his words. Especially the part about the best one walking out, since he clearly meant himself. Emily liked that confidence, though she was sure a lot of other people wouldn't be a fan of it. "How kind of you," she said with a short nod. "Can we talk about your support group instead? Do you feel like you have or even need those willing to help you?" She was about ready to wrap this up for the day, feeling as though she had enough for her first article about him at least. She knew the tournament was important news and the champions were equally as important, but there were other things happening that were just as important, if not more. Still, this was her assignment since she was in charge of Hogwarts news.


@emile

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H e had a feeling that this topic was going to be covered eventually. A support group? Not only did he not want one, he assumed there really wouldn’t be too many people that would want to reciprocate it back. It was a little sad looking at it from the outside, he was sure of that, but he really didn’t care. There would be a good chunk of the Beauxbatons students that would suck it up and route for him simply because he was the champion, not because they liked him. She had a point about him not being willing to allow that much help. There was no reason to get others in on his competition, his glory. If he couldn’t do it on his own, then that was that. “I have my advisor, that’s pretty much it.” He shrugged his shoulders. There wasn’t too much that she could do for him though, at least from what he could tell so far. “But she’s really only helped me with dealing with the publicity. Not that I really needed advice on that.” Émile had dealt with everything pretty easily so far. It wasn’t too hard when he expected to be chosen from the very beginning. If anything, not being the champion would have been harder on him than actually being picked. “I’m sure you’ll see the other Beauxbatons cheering for me. They’ll have to accept that I’m their champion eventually.” 239 @emily

credit to nat of adoxography.

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He mentioned his advisor, and Emily nodded. She already had Annabeth Leonatos name, of course. He mentioned how she'd helped so far and Emily chuckled "Well, you do seem to handle it well, but so far that's all you've really had to do, right? I'm sure she'll be more helpful when more things come along," she said with a small nod. Then he went on about the other students and how they'd have to accept it eventually and she tilted her head to the sign, "are you saying that they're not happy about it now, Emile? That's a shame. Jealousy, or something more?" she questioned.

@emile

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S he wasn’t wrong. Annabeth had barely helped with anything, yet she had given him a few decent pointers on how to talk to the media. Apparently they couldn’t handle his ego all the time. Something about them distorting it to make it worse than it sounded. Who cared about that though? The more people that hated him for wanting to be the best out there, the more it fueled his energy to do better. If anything, the negative publicity is what he needed more than anything else. The first interview he had done hadn’t turned out that way, but he had an inkling of an idea that Emily here, and the rather boring boy from the school paper, would accurately depict him how he wanted. “Maybe she will. Ask the same thing again after the first task, and I’ll let you know. Wouldn’t blame her if she left though, since I’ll be doing so well that I won’t need her for the last two tasks.” Émile grinned, sure of his abilities that were going to be necessary in the upcoming challenges. “Jealousy? Definitely. I think we’ve established already that I’m not the most liked of the Beauxbatons students here. I will be by the end of the tournament, but right now they’d more than love to see me die during this.” He shrugged his shoulders at the morbid comment. It was a possibility. The tournament was dangerous for a reason. “I’ll be a constant source of their disappointment though, up until I win the whole thing.” 256 @emily

credit to nat of adoxography.

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Emily made her notes and continued to nod as Emile spoke about his adviser and then answered her question about his fellow classmates. "Die? Well, that seems a little harsh," though, he actually didn't seem to be joking. "You think winning will really make a difference?" she thought that would actually just make them hate her more, but she didn't say her opinion. That wasn't what she was hear for. She was hear to speak with Emile about the tournament, not state her own thoughts. At least not unless they served giving him more to talk about.

"Well, I don't want to keep you. Any last words? No 'dying' pun intended," she grinned.

@emile

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M aybe dying was a little melodramatic, even for him. Although, they both knew that was a distinct possibility in the Triwizard Tournament. There might not have been a loss of life in the last one, but the last time Hogwarts had held it there was. Outlying factors aside in that death, as far as his research went on the matter, there was always someone either killed or seriously maimed. Who knew what they would be going up against? Even though he had played it up like he had an idea, it could literally be anything. Whatever the judges and Hogwarts deemed worthy enough a task to be graced with his excellence, is what the three champions would be battling against. “I think winning will make all the difference. Right now I’m either being taken serious, or still laughed at because I think I’m the ‘best at everything’. At the end of the day, if I win, which I will, I can go back to France and put them in their places for doubting me.” It was about his integrity. He was champion, they said he couldn’t do it. They didn’t think he could win, let alone win a task. Those were the next two important things to prove them wrong about. Then he had unlimited bragging rights for life. She asked him if he had any final words. Laughing at the joke, despite her saying it wasn’t a pun, Émile thought for a few moments. He had already said a lot, but there were a few things still. “How about this,” he started. “There’s that saying, ‘you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?’ right? Well I can talk, and I can most certainly do the walk. All the way to winning the Triwizard Tournament. I’m not to be taken lightly.” [The End Yus?] 304 @emily

credit to nat of adoxography.